Daily Archives: September 15, 2012

This was going to just be a gadget update, but I thought the chicken turned out so good, I figured I’d include it.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my newest gadget and I’ve been using it pretty consistently since it arrived. I thought I’d give an update, because I’m really pleased with it. It’s almost all pros. It’s a breeze to use, it doesn’t take a lot of force to penetrate the meat. I love the way it infuses the meat with whatever seasoning or marinade I cover it with – quite literally it helps the meat absorb all the marinade in a couple of seconds. Another plus is how neat it is while tenderizing – the meat, especially chicken, doesn’t need to be wrapped before pounding – there is no meat flying around the kitchen. The real plus is how easily it cleans. Because of the guard between the base and the meat, stuff doesn’t get all caught up in the tines. A bit of soap and hot water and the thing is spotless. Really important with chicken. The one con I have, and it may be a strength issue for me, is that sometimes the tines get caught in the meat and I have to pry it out, kind of like pulling a stick out of mud, and start again. This happens with the thicker parts.

Today I used it to tenderize chicken breasts before breading and oven roasting them. When making this basic oven fried chicken, breasts can be difficult because they can dry out easily. Pounding them flat first makes for quicker cooking, less chance of drying out. And here’s the recipe I used today:

Oven Fried Chicken:

First I seasoned the boneless breasts with salt and lots of pepper. I pounded them on both sides. Then I dipped them in an egg wash (1 egg and 2 tbsp of water per 4 breasts) and then dredged them in a mixture of bread crumbs, panko bread crumbs and seasonings – I used garlic powder, basil, sun dried tomato flakes, rosemary and a touch of oregano. I lined them up on a foil covered baking sheet, covered them with foil and baked at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Then I raised the oven temp to 425 degrees, removed the foil and baked for an additional 5-7 minutes until crisp.

They were very moist on the inside, with a nice crisp crust. Leftovers will be great in lunch salads…

Mrs J found some rye hoagie rolls at the store the other day. This seemed like an excellent use for them. The sausages are from the garlic pepper batch I made the other day. Tasty! I’m leaning towards Italian sausages for the next project – I really do need to unbox the new meat grinder and give it a spin. I’ll have to pick up some meat, though, thinking hard on an expedition to that meat processor that we stop by when we have business in the big city so that we can stock up on pork shoulders.

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About TaMara

What's to say? I love to cook and I think families benefit from sitting down together for dinner every night. I ran What's 4 Dinner Solutions menus service for many year. Soon those menus, recipes and shopping lists will be a series of cookbooks. Guaranteed to make it easier for families to have a quick, delicious and nutritious dinner each night.